AAP government will table ‘outcome’ budget this year

New Delhi: Marking a departure from the existing budget practices, the Aam Aadmi Party government will present a budget with quantifiable indicators for each sector along with the allocations. For this, a comprehensive outcome budgeting exercise has been carried out for the first time by each department and the agency wherein all major programmes and schemes have been mapped against outputs.

For example, under the Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics scheme, the total financial outlay for 2017-18 will be accompanied by output indicators measuring total number of new Mohalla Clinics that will be launched, number of medical and para-medical staff to be deployed, and number of free medicines and tests that will be made available.

The outcome indicators will track actual number of patients availing these services, as well as satisfaction score on a scale of 1 to 5. Similarly, under the mid-day meal scheme offered in government schools, indicators have been defined to measure not only the total number of schools and children availing of mid-day meal scheme, but also the perentage of children who are underweight in schools and their attendance.

“The final outcome budget for 2017-18 will be presented in the budget session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly next week, along with the financial budget,” an official statement said.

Speaking at a review meeting of all heads of departments, which was attended by the finance secretary and the chief secretary, the deputy chief minister of Delhi & finance minister Manish Sisodia said, “A traditional budget emphasises only financial outlays and spending on various activities, but stops short of promising outcomes that citizens eventually care about. This outcome budget will constitute a contract between the Delhi government, and therefore each department official of the Delhi government, and the people of Delhi.”

This recent effort from Delhi government marks a big departure from existing budgeting practices of all state governments where budget allocations are accompanied only with vague promises in budget speeches. “In comparison, under the Delhi government’s Outcome Budgeting exercise, each budgetary allocation will be accompanied by a comprehensive set of quantifiable indicators, some measuring outputs and some measuring outcomes. Extra attention was paid to ensure indicators are specific and measurable, and comparable across similar institutions and programmes e.g. hospitals, engineering colleges, skill-training programmes etc,” the statement said.

“Since the total list of indicators defined through Outcome Budgeting might run into thousands, the Delhi government is also planning to develop an IT application which will track all these commitments on a quarterly basis based on inputs provided by departments, and in some cases, through independent surveys. The IT application will also have the ability to publish automated reports and data visualization, as well as provide customised dashboards for the officers and ministers of Delhi government,” the statement added.